Everything you need to know about tonight's Homecoming game

2020 Homecoming Queen Corri Evans and Kissing Captain Sango Whitehorn

No. 5 Sand Springs (3-0) vs unranked Ponca City (1-2).

Memorial Stadium
600 North Adams Road
Sand Springs, OK 74127

Homecoming Court at 6:30 p.m.
Kickoff at 7:00 p.m.

Inside concessions benefit the Gold Pride Marching Band. Church That Matters pre-game tailgate outside the stadium benefits the Sandite Wrestling team and begins at 6:00 p.m.

Don't forget to stop by the Inkwell Printing official gameday booth for all your Sandite Spirit Wear!

Through three games...

Ty Pennington is 48 of 73 passing for 735 yards, 10 TDs, and 1 int this season. He's currently ranked No. 3 in the Tulsa World's All-World Top Ten Players list.

Blake Jones is 61-477 rushing for 7 TDs.

Receiving leaders

Brody Rutledge, 15-273, 3 TDs
Jacob Blevins 13-173, 2 TDs
Keaton Campbell 13-163, 3 TDs
Ryan Shoemaker 6-74, 2 TDs

Defensive playmakers

Brooks Dudley 29 tackles, 2.5 for loss, 1.5 sacks
Drake Fain 23 tackles, 1 for loss
Gabe Brown 19 tackles, 3 for loss, 1.5 sacks
Landon Hendricks 17 tackles, 5 for loss, 2 sacks
Charles Gaylord 16 tackles, 2 for loss
Conner Light 15 tackles, 1 for loss
Ryder Barnes 15 tackles, 0.5 for loss
Chase White 6 tackles, 1 int

Landon Wolfe is 12-of-14 on PATs and 1-of-1 on field goals with a long of 27 yards.

Sand Springs vs. Ponca City History

The Sandites' last 3-0 start was in 2012 when they went 6-0 before falling to Union.

Sand Springs beat Ponca City 35-10 last year on the road, but the Wildcats won 24-14 the last time they were in Sand Springs.

Pennington is 31-52-438-1 passing with 3 passing TDs and one rushing TD in his two games against the Wildcats. Campbell was 6-134 receiving against the Wildcats in 2019 and 10-138 with 2 TDs in 2020.

Sand Springs leads the all-time series 26-20-1.

The first-ever meeting was 1952 in a Thanksgiving day playoff that Ponca won 27-9.

The only tie in the series was 7-7 in 1953.

In 1954 the Sandites came back from a 20-point deficit to win 21-20 with future MLB star Jerry Adair at quarterback.

In 1981 the Sandites won 31-24 on the road in triple overtime.

The Sandites have met the Wildcats once before with a 3-0 record and they won 14-13 in 1987. Not including season openers, Sand Springs is 3-0 against the Wildcats when defending an undefeated record.

The Sandites have played Ponca at least thrice before on Homecoming. In 1988 Sand Springs won 20-0, Ponca won 30-14 in 1994, and Sand Springs won 56-35 in 2016.

Ponca City's biggest win in the series was 48-2 in 2003. Sand Springs's biggest win was 57-7 in 2013. The highest total score in the series was a 56-35 Sandite win in 2016.

Sand Springs has pitched four shutouts in the series and has only been shut out once. The last shutout was a 21-0 Sandite win in 2006.

All in the family...

Brett Pennington was 2-1 against Ponca (22-15, 28-0, 13-21)

Caden Pennington was 2-0 against Ponca (42-7, 35-14)

Ty Pennington is 1-1 against Ponca (14-24, 35-10)

Ty Pennington is 2-0 on Homecoming, beating Muskogee 45-14 as a junior and Shawnee 21-19 as a sophomore.

Reach Church celebrates 40 years in Sand Springs, 10 years under lead pastor Chad Stewart

A version of this story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

40 years ago, 1402 N 81st W Avenue was an empty field on the Sand Springs - Tulsa line. Today it’s a thriving church celebrating its 40th anniversary, and the 10th anniversary of its current pastor, Chad Stewart.

Reach Church has been reaching people in Sand Springs, Tulsa, and around the world for nearly half a century, but for most of its history it was known as Word of Life Fellowship. 

In August of 2018 they changed their name to Reach, but the mission has always been the same. “Go to Sand Springs, raise up a New Testament church, and from there you will touch the world.”

Those were the words that David Emigh heard God speak to him while the 28-year-old was pastoring alongside his wife Sharon in Rosebud, Missouri. 

The Emighs founded the church in 1981 in a former QuikTrip building at 619 E 10th St. that then became the church’s Depot Youth Ministries building when they built their new facilities. 

Emigh led the church for 30 years, writing three books, founding dozens of satellite churches, airing an AM radio broadcast, and founding a bible school and international ministerial organization. Many Word of Life churches are still operating around the globe to this day, in countries like the Philippines and Myanmar. 

The church never got to celebrate its 30th anniversary, however.

On June 15, 2011, David Emigh died in a motorcycle accident, and Associate Pastor Chad Stewart was thrust into the leadership role. 

Stewart came to Word of Life as the College and Careers Pastor, and served briefly as the interim youth pastor before being promoted to Associate Pastor a few months before Emigh’s death. 

Moving a church forward after the death of its founding pastor was far from an easy task. Stewart had to honor the legacy of the church’s founder, maintain the church’s existing identity, while simultaneously following his own passions and calling.

On September 11th, over 90% of the church’s members voted to promote him to the lead role, and ten years have proven that he was the right man for the job. 

The church has seen a number of changes over the past ten years. The name change was a big one. The youth ministry is now at the main church building, and the old Depot building was sold to The Stronghold church. 

But at its heart, Reach Church is still the same. Touching the world from a home base in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. 

The church meets every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and has youth services on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. They actively participate in the Sand Springs Local Church Network, they serve the local school districts, host community events, and continue to support missionaries and satellite churches around the world.

The congregation will celebrate their 40th anniversary on September 19th, 2021 with two services at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. with guest speakers at each. There will also be a cookout and church picnic following the services. 

Small Businesses Find Success in Oklahoma Incubators

Sand Springs Home Trustee Erik Stuckey (left) shakes hands with former Sand Springs Chamber of Commerce President Kyle Smith outside The Link small business incubator in downtown Sand Springs.

Business incubators nurture the development of entrepreneurial companies, helping them survive and grow during the start-up period, when they are most vulnerable. These programs provide client companies with business support services and resources tailored to young firms. The most common goals of incubation programs are creating jobs in a community, enhancing a community’s entrepreneurial climate, retaining businesses in a community, building or accelerating growth in a local industry, and diversifying local economies.

The role of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce in the incubator process is to certify the incubators and to ensure the incubators meet certain standards of excellence.

Two core principles that characterize effective business incubation include:

1. The incubator aspires to have a positive impact on its community’s economic health by maximizing emerging companies’ successes.

2. The incubator itself is a dynamic model of a sustainable, efficient business operation.

These incubators provide:

• Flexible space and leases

• Access to office services and equipment

• An on-site incubator manager as a resource for business advice

Exposure to a network of outside business and technical consultants, often providing accounting, marketing, engineering and legal advice; and assistance with financing and marketing.

Currently, 31 certified small business incubators are operating in Oklahoma, with tenants ranging from small service companies to high-tech research and development operations and manufacturing entities.

During 2020, Oklahoma incubator managers were asked to complete a questionnaire to document their activities for the current reporting period. The following statistics are based on the information received from the responding incubator managers:

Currently 1,165 jobs are provided by 109 small business located in incubators.

More than 1,000 small businesses have located in a small business incubator throughout the life of Oklahoma’s Certified Small Business Incubator Program.

More than 500 of those have graduated from the program or relocated to a larger facility.

1,373 people are currently employed by 259 of the graduated businesses that remained in the state.

Here are just a few success stories from those business throughout 2020:

Aircraft Logistics Group, LLC Acorn Growth Companies Oklahoma City, Okla.

The success of Aircraft Logistics Group, LLC continues to be a compelling story for incubators. In 2017, the company completed the sale of a significant portion of its loan portfolio to a strategic buyer in the aerospace and defense sector that carried forward the mission of airborne intelligence missions in support of the global war on terror. The sale represented an 8x return on invested capital and a 46% gross internal rate of return.

Generation FSH Hemphill Create Tulsa, Okla.

Generation FSH is a new tenant of Hemphill Create, specializing in welding and fabrication service. The owners of the company saw an opportunity to start their family business at Hemphill in October 2020. The husband and wife duo wanted to leave the shuffle and control of the corporate grind and bet on themselves. Duane Grundy is a welder and fabricator, while his wife Shavonne Grundy handles corporate affairs. Gaining perspective from Hemphill’s successful family business has helped further the Grundy’s outlook on success and provided historical data and industry knowledge to add to their repertoire of talent.

Flexibility and support are key to success in these unprecedented times. Hemphill has offered companies a safe haven to grow and explore business strategy and growth in spite of the on-going global pandemic.

Mortgage Solutions Financial The LINK Sand Springs, Okla.

Mortgage Solutions Financial started at The LINK by occupying two private desk spaces. The company has flourished, doubling the initial number of employees. They have outgrown their work space three times and now occupy three office suites. Their growth and financial standing has far exceeded their expectations. They anticipate graduating from The LINK incubator soon.

Indigo Technology Group The Forge Tulsa, Okla.

Indigo Technology Group, a Tulsa based software company, uses their scalable technologies as a platform to launch other startups alongside industry veterans. As a technology platform, they become a multiplier when coupled with domain experts, cutting the costs and shortening ramp-up time to profitability. Indigo has successfully helped launch several growth-oriented companies and highlights their achievements through Indigo’s annual “Technology Showcase” each spring.

Commerce will be highlighting incubator business success stories in upcoming issues of the New Pioneer – signup for our E-Newsletter. Find out more about certified Incubators or locate an Incubator near you.